The present study concerns the simulation of a continuous annealing line (CAL), using dilatometry. Simulations of CAL have been performed on four commercial steel grades with different chemical compositions in order to investigate how the alloying elements C, Mn, Si and B affect the microstructure and hardness of dual phase (DP) and martensitic steels. Three annealing cycles corresponding to those used in a CAL have been applied. When annealing intercritically, as is the case in DP-steel production, the materials do not reach equilibrium during soaking. Mn and C increase the austenite content and consequently the hardness of the materials. Higher levels of Si (0.4 wt %) are required to retard the formation of new ferrite during cooling in the gas jet section, prior to quenching. B increases hardenability effectively when annealing in the austenite region but is not as efficient during intercritical annealing, which implies that boron restrains ferrite nucleation rather than impeding ferrite growth. Results from DICTRA calculations show that it is possible to simulate the phase transformations during soaking, gasjet cooling and quenching. © 2010 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.